'Bribe money is one thing I really hate', Kano Governor Ganduje tells lawmakers

The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has strongly denied collecting bribe money from contractors.

Ganduje before a seven man probe panel set up by the State House of Assembly.

The panel is tasked with looking into allegations of bribe seeking and gratification levelled against Ganduje and depicted in a series of video clipswhich the governor has often referred to as doctored and cloned.

Instead, the governor asked his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Muhammad Garba, to represent him at the hearing.

Politically injurious allegation

Testifying before the house, Ganduje said the allegation levelled against him are injurious.

Ganduje added that the video clips as released by the publisher of Daily Nigerian, Jafaar Jafaar, were aimed at tarnishing his image politically.

Garba told the House that he was at the assembly complex to represent the governor because the option of a representation was provided for by the committee in its invitation letter.

In the document presented before the committee, Ganduje denied collecting bribes from the contractors as alleged by the publisher of the online newspaper.

The Governor stated that he's never been the kind of person to solicit bribe and will never do so.

He also called on the public to discard the allegations in their entirety because they never happened and called on publishers to desist from publications capable of tarnishing the image of leaders.

“Such false publications were done to the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammad Sanusi the II and also to the former Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau”, Ganduje said in the document.

Fair hearing

Also commenting on the issue, the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General Barrister Ibrahim Mukhtar commended the way and manner the committee is handling the issue by giving fair hearing to both parties.

Stern looking security personnel cordoned the Assembly complex to prevent the breakdown of law and order, while the hearing lasted.

On October 15, 2018, the Kano State House of Assembly, under the leadership of Alhaji Kabiru Alhassan Rurum, constituted a committee whose mandate was to establish the authenticity of the videos.

On October 14, 15 and 31, Daily Nigerian had exclusively published three videos showing Mr Ganduje allegedly receiving bribe in dollars.

Daily Nigerian maintains that it has many more of those videos in its kitty.

Daily Nigerian publisher, Jaafar, testified before the committee on October 15 and insisted that the videos were genuine and not cloned. He subsequently expressed readiness to swear by the Quran if it came to that.